Postcolonial Libyan Novel: Self-Orientalism and Occidentalism

The intellectually-based relationship between East and West is as old as the dialectic interaction between them, and the writings of whatever type by each one commenting on, describing, portraying, depicting and/or dialoguing with the other seem to have been continuous since the advent of that interaction. Accordingly, two phenomena seem to have emerged reflecting the tendency of each to knowledgeably recognize the other, and have crystallized in the terms Orientalism and, more recently, Occidentalism. This book is about the discourse of the two in the postcolonial Libyan novel in terms of cultural encounter between the Oriental Self and the Occidental Other and how each is represented, all within the contexts and texts of three novels which represent three different responses of 'awareness' and try to address questions like: whether or not Libyans can become Self-made even by a Western prescription, and how 'they' see 'us' and 'we' see 'them'. Hence, this work is especially useful for professionals in occidentalism, orientalism, dialogue of civilizations and otherness studies, and of interest to those working on oriental postcolonial representations of Arabic and Libyan narrative.

Pages: 216, Paperback, LAP Lambert Academic Publishing